ASM draws up CDS contingency plan News Roundup 8 Freight soſtware firm Agency


Sector Management (ASM) says it is working on contingency plans in the event that the replacement for HMRC’s CHIEF system, Customs Declaration Service (CDS) is delayed. CDS is due to replace the CHIEF system in phases by January 2019, but it is uncertain whether it will be fully ready by the intended deadline. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is now trialling a dual


system that will use parts of CDS alongside parts of CHIEF until the new service is fully rolled out, and ASM says it is working closely with HMRC to ensure its Sequoia Customs clearance soſtware is also ready at the time of the go-live. ASM chairman Peter


MacSwiney, said: “We have been working hard for more than a year now modifying Sequoia, our customs clearance soſtware, to support these huge changes,


Government invests to get trade Brexit-ready


HM Treasury and HMRC have designed a package of measures, to get companies ready for Brexit in March 2019. They will include a one-off


investment of £8 million to support broker training and increased automation. Financial Secretary to the


Treasury, Mel Stride, said: “HM Treasury and HMRC have been engaging extensively with the customs intermediaries sector on EU exit, including customs brokers, freight forwarders and fast parcel operators. We have listened to their concerns about the extra demand for customs broker services in the unlikely event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal in March 2019. We plan to invest £8m for customs training and automation to


support the sector to expand to help meet the potential increase in demand for this scenario.” There will be a procurement


process for training providers for new courses or expanding existing material for customs brokers. The government says its research has indicated a lack of widely available and accessible training provision for customs brokers. There will be a grant scheme


to support intermediaries and traders with the upfront costs of training their employees and another to support investment in automation. The Government expects the procurement process for


contracts with training


providers to start shortly, with the grant schemes expected to be available in late autumn.


but many features in the new system are yet to be made available which means delays are likely.” He added: We will continue


doing all we can to support businesses through the transition, as well as consulting with HMRC to ensure industry concerns are properly taken into account.” He added: “A lot of standing


data and business rules have not been uploaded nor tested in


CDS yet, and it is our experience that it takes a lot of time to test and ‘tweak’ these to make them work properly, meaning HMRC deadlines may be missed.” “As the CDS roll-out continues,


we will continue with upgrades to Sequoia until we are satisfied that everything is working well and meets the industry’s requirements, and we are also working closely with HMRC to ensure the success of this project.”


HMRC faces ‘daunting task’ says Commons committee


HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) faces a daunting task in preparing for the UK’s exit from the European Union, which could also hamper its ability to tackle tax fraud, said the House of Commons Public Accounts committee in a report published on 2 November. It said that HMRC was being


forced to reprioritise resources to post-Brexit customs and borders issues, which was hindering its ability to deal with the estimated £1.3 billion currently being lost


to fraud


and errors in the Tax Credit system, it said. HMRC expects overpayments to increase and that it will exceed its target to


keep error and fraud below 5% of Tax Credit payments. The Committee also remains


worried about the risks to customs and borders aſter Brexit and has written separately to HMRC


to emphasise its


continued concerns. Other issues, said the report,


are the recently announced further delay to HMRC’s new Customs Declaration Service which means that


it is very


unlikely to be ready for exporters by the time of Brexit, and the need for further development of HMRC’s systems so that they can handle postponed accounting for import VAT in the event of a no deal Brexit by March 2019.


PD Ports adds second Scottish train


PD Ports has launched a second train between Teesport and Scotland. The new service, operated by


DB Cargo, will run five days a week from the quayside at Teesport to the PD Stirling Terminal at Mossend in Glasgow. It provides a direct connection with the P&O Ferries daily service to and from Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. PD Ports launched its first


Scottish rail connection from Teesport in August 2015, and says, with ten trains a week, it now offers more direct daily rail connections to and from Scotland than any other port in the north of England. Earlier this year P&O Ferries


increased its capacity on the Zeebrugge service by 25%. PD Ports chief executive,


Frans Calje, said: “Frequency and reliability is fundamental to the success of our customers’


Issue 8 2018 - Freight Business Journal


///NEWS


Applications for ECMT international road haulage permits opened on 26 November. The Freight Transport Association advised truck operators wanting to run into the EU aſter Brexit to apply sooner rather than later, in case the UK leaves the EU without a deal. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ecmt-international-road-haulage-permits


Road & Rail


The Rail Freight Group (RFG) has elected Russell Logistics director Ken Russell as its new chair following the retirement of Tony Berkeley on 7 November. Ken Russell has been a long-standing supporter of the RFG, both on the board since 2015 and as a member since the start of the group. Managing director of Victa Railfreight, Neil Sime, has been elected to the new role of vice-chair. Under a new process agreed by the RFG Board, they will serve for 12 months. Maggie Simpson, currently executive director, has been appointed to the role of director general, and will continue to lead the group.


DB Cargo UK, the country’s largest rail freight operator has more than doubled the size of its existing Wolverhampton steel terminal. DB Cargo currently transports steel to the centre by rail from the ports of Immingham, Hull and Boston for final delivery by road. Tata Steel and SSAB. DB Cargo says the £6m project is one of the largest investments in rail freight in the past five years.


AP Moller-Maersk’s Damco forwarding arm is offering a block train service from China to Europe.


Oman is to join the TIR customs transit scheme. The International Road Transport Union (IRU) said it would work closely with government agencies to develop a digital using the latest technologies. Bilateral trade between Arab countries is currently as low as 10% of the total, said IRU. It follows the launch in September of the first ever intermodal TIR operation between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the EU. Argentina has also acceded to the TIR Convention, joining existing South American signatories Chile and Uruguay.


Network Rail said on 1 November it was “a matter of months” from completing the Felixstowe capacity enhancement scheme. Engineers have installed 2,300 sleepers and track bed, ready for the start of the installation of 1.4km of new line in the coming months. The work will allow up to 10 additional freight trains in each direction to and from the port of Felixstowe.


DHL Freight is launching a recruitment initiative to counter the truck driver shortage. A pilot project at five locations in Germany will provide long-term career prospects and modified job profiles offering more varied work.


Kerry Logistics has launched its first rail and road multimodal freight service from Lanzhou, China to Islamabad, Pakistan. The first train departed Lanzhou by block train on 23 October 2018, and travelled 3,300 km to the Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone in Xinjiang for transfer to trucks for the remaining 1,200km to Islamabad. The journey, which reached altitudes of 5,000 m was completed in just 13 days.


The first TIR truck from China to Europe arrived in Poland on 26 November aſter a journey of 13 days, without any disruption or customs issues, the IRU reports. The 7,000 km journey operated via Russia and Belarus to Poland with a door-to-door cost and delivery time that is competitive with both air and rail, it says.


existence. We have vessels arriving at Teesport from the Baltics every 30 hours and every 48


hours from Poland with


direct rail connections from the quayside to Scotland twice a day, five days a week. “This frequency breeds trust and confidence amongst shippers


that they can transport their goods from Europe to Scotland within a 36 hour period, minimising cost and carbon emissions.” PD Stirling managing director,


Andrew Stirling, added: “This is excellent news for Scottish importers and exporters. It not only provides vital daily rail


connections to and from the continent through Teesport, it also provides support to Scotland’s manufacturing base. This growth in rail transport with Teesport has led to firm plans to expand our facilities and to launch the Mossend International Rail Freight Park.”


News Roundup Customs & Trade


The government has promised that HMRC will take steps to halve the time it takes companies to become Trusted Customs Traders from 120 to 60 days, as part of the Budget unveiled on 31 October. It also promised an additional £2 billion in direct lending for overseas buyers and a new UK mission to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).


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